The Rocky Road to Reform - 9780262200936

These case studies by an international roster of development economists providevaluable insights into the difficulty of establishing answers to the fundamental question of whynations grow at different rates, with inequitable patterns of wealth and income distribution.Thecase studies of Colombia, Chile, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, the Philippines,Mexico, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, Zambia, and Senegal look at each countryfrom the perspective of its own history and institutions, bringing to light factors that conditionobserved performances.The country studies are framed by introductory chapters by Lance Taylor.Taylor discusses the ideas underlying the cases and summarizes their implications. He sets currentpolicy in a broader context surrounded by initial and boundary conditions on economic reformrelevant for the 1990s: prior debates in development economics; the theory of the state; currentlypopular options for economic stabilization and adjustment; and trade, industrial, and agriculturalstrategies. Drawing on results of the country studies, Taylor also sets up a novel "3-gap"macroeconomic model to calculate foreign resource requirements for growth.Lance Taylor is Professorof Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.